Chapter 34 #3
I crack the office door open enough for me to slide through, ignoring Remus' whispered commands to stay put, and drop to my stomach to crawl to the edge of the staircase. Rogelio throws the front door open, and I press my body flush against the floor.
"Narcissa? Beto? Socorro?" Rogelio's voice rings out, truly unaware of the trespassers one level above him. "Dogs?"
Shit. If he finds the dogs knocked out, his suspicions will be aroused, and he might alert the Black Guard. My mind spins, attempting to come up with a plan but suddenly Rogelio laughs and pats his thighs.
"There you are, I was beginning to worry something happened to you."
The three war dogs groggily approach their master for loving pats, stretching their legs and licking his face when he crouches to their level.
"Did I wake you?" He kisses Beto on his enormous head, whilst rubbing Narcissa's ear, and scratching Socorros' exposed belly. "I know, I'm tired too. What do you say we grab a late-night snack and go upstairs to bed?"
He rises from his crouched position and trots past the foyer to the back of the house where the kitchen is, the three dogs dutifully waddling behind him, either unaware of our presence or too interested in snacks to remember why they fell asleep in the first place.
I'll take all the luck we can get at this point.
Once they're out of sight, I slowly stand and crouch back to the office and shut the door.
"Rogelio is home," I confirm. Remus and Olli exchange a loaded look before the latter begins to stuff the papers back into their folder. He has a few pages left to scour, but I'm afraid we might not have enough time to escape before the hounds realize we're in here.
"Is he coming upstairs?" Remus asks.
I shake my head. "He was playing with the dogs."
"Playing?" His eyes widen in disbelief. "With those dogs?"
I roll my eyes and twirl my index finger. "We need to wrap this up and go."
"I have two pages left," Olli says, not glancing up.
"All right, we'll go out the window in one minute. I for one don't want to be in here when those beasts come up the stairs." Remus points for us to exit through the narrow window and shimmy down the garden railings to the ground level.
With one hand, Olli secures the copied documents in his satchel but stops moving when he comes to the last paper and goes pale.
"What's wrong?" I ask when he gasps.
Remus looks down at Olli, and motions for him to head to the window he's opened for us to leave through, but the redhead refuses to move a muscle, as if he's frozen.
I abandon the door and crouch beside him to read the paper he's clutched in his hand. As my eyes quickly scan over each word, I finally find the name of who will be executed, and my mouth dries instantly. Glancing up at a ready-to-go Remus, his eyes widen when I meet his gaze.
"Who is it?" he asks, voice hoarse, shoulders tense.
I don't know how to handle this situation except to answer his question with raw honesty. "The prisoner they're executing is Boudica Kane."
The air feels as if it's been sucked out of the room. Remus stills. His eyes water, though his face is riddled with confusion.
"That's not possible," he rasps, shaking his head, brows pinching together. "My mother was executed alongside my father fifteen years ago. She can't be alive."
"Her name is there, Remus." Olli stands only to stop dead in his tracks.
Footsteps in the foyer echo and the creak of the steps alert us to Rogelio and his dogs coming our way.
I know Remus is being flooded with a thousand questions and a plethora of emotions discovering his mother is not only alive, but she's been kept prisoner all these long years enduring what I can assume is a multitude of horrors.
But if we don't get out of here now, we'll have to fight our way out, and that will only tip off Severo of our presence.
Any chance we have of rescuing Boudica from death will be rendered useless.
Coming to the conclusion I have to be the voice of reason, I whisper, "We have to go. Now."
Olli doesn't hesitate. He tosses the file back into the drawer and closes it. Swiping his satchel and swooping it over his arm, he accidentally knocks a candlestick off the edge of Severo's desk and it crashes to the floor with a rattling thud.
Rogelio's footsteps stop and we wait in complete silence to hear if we've been discovered or not. A collective breath is loosened when we don't hear the mastiffs barking to alert their master of our trespassing, but we can't tempt fate again.
Finally, as if sense has found Olli, he slips by Remus, glides out the window and grabs ahold of the downspout to begin his descent to the garden.
Per our escape plan, Olli will hide in the bushes below until Remus and I join him to sprint across the yard together.
Olli must reach the bushes because Remus jerks his head, silently commanding me to follow suit.
I know he's in pain, but I'm grateful he's snapped out of his stupor and has taken command again.
But as I take a step toward him, toward the window that will grant me freedom, the door is kicked open and Rogelio stands in the threshold armed with his rapier.
The fury lines marring his face fade into shock when his eyes meet mine. "Elena?"